Ad Age: P&G Expands Online Publishing Operations

Procter & Gamble is filling its own online editorial niches, creating its own health-related consumer publications to help promote its lines of over-the-counter remedies and related products. After garnering four million subscribers for its HomeMadeSimple magazine over the past three years, the consumer goods giant will diversify its efforts with HealthExpressions.com.

The company soft launched the site with internal lists collected by brands such as Crest and Metamucil. With that economy of scale to start, its own online publications can be more attractive to its brand managers both in terms of cost and proper targeting. A P&G officials said that the major unmet need they saw in the online publishing arena remained in the "light healthcare" sector.

Increasingly, consumer product goods companies advertising online are looking for sign-ups for internal lists and publications, creating an ongoing relationship, rather than merely depositing granular brand or direct marketing messages.